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Violent unrest rocks China as crisis hits
1 Feb 2009, 1330 hrs

LONDON: The collapse of the export trade in China has left millions jobless and set off a wave of violent unrest in the country.

Bankruptcies , unemployment and social unrest are spreading more widely in China than officially reported, according to an independent research that paints an ominous picture for the world economy, The Sunday Times reported.

The research was conducted for the newspaper over the last two months in three provinces vital to Chinese trade - Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu.

It was found that the global economic crisis has scythed through exports and set off dozens of protests that are never mentioned by the state media.

According to the report in the southern province of Guangdong, three jobless men detonated a bomb in a business travellers' hotel in the commercial city of Foshan to extort money from the management.

All along the coast, angry workers besieged labour offices and government buildings after dozens of factories closed their doors, without paying wages and their owners went back to Hong Kong, Taiwan or South Korea.

In southern China, hundreds of workers blocked a highway to protest against pay cuts imposed by managers. At several factories, there were scenes of chaos as police were called to stop creditors breaking in to seize equipment in lieu of debts.

In northern China, television journalists were punished after they prepared a story on the occupation of a textile mill by 6,000 workers.

Furious local leaders in the city of Linfen said the news item would "destroy social stability" and banned it.

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By SHAI OSTER

CHAOZHOU, China -- As China's economy stalls, rising public unrest has bubbled up in a series of labor strikes across the country.

In an unusual response, authorities -- facing a delicate task in tamping down disquiet -- have been allowing the protests and staging high-profile meetings with strike leaders to talk over concessions.

A strike by nearly 8,000 taxi drivers in the southwestern city of Chongqing in early November helped spark the recent wave. After three days, the city's top Communist Party official, Bo Xilai, held a three-hour meeting with cabbies' representatives, televised live. Mr. Bo, who is also a member of the Communist Party's powerful central committee, urged drivers to set up an organization to mediate between their employers and the government.

Soon after, strikes spread across the country among taxi drivers and workers in sectors from refrigerated food to teaching, with similar results.

The last widespread worker unrest in China came during the Asian financial crisis a decade ago, when the government dismantled cradle-to-grave welfare and slashed payrolls in struggling state-owned enterprises across the northern rust belt. At that time, protests were quickly suppressed and their leaders arrested, while the media was forbidden from covering them.

Now, the main focus of ire is the private sector, which has been especially hard hit by the current economic meltdown. The surge in bankruptcies and layoffs has led to an increase in labor arbitration cases in Guangzhou. According to China Daily, a government-owned newspaper, there have been 60,000 cases so far this year, twice the previous year's rate.

That's played a part in spurring the protests and an implicit recognition that workers need some kind of independent representation.

[eEwbYjOH]

So which is the more "Communist" system? China or Singapore?

At least over there, there are protests. Here?

[hieklyintinee]

http://www.reuters.com/news/video?vi...5&refresh=true

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Singapore is a peaceful country where people thrust the gahment absolutely in silence.